Photograph of Hajime Komatsu performing acupuncture on a client

This is a photograph of registered acupuncturist and owner of Kampo Health, Dr Hajime Komatsu, attending to a client at his clinic.
Hajime holds a PhD degree and worked at the National Cancer Centre Research Institute in Tokyo for two years following his graduation. He practised and lectured on herbal medicine and acupuncture in Japan for many years before coming to Aotearoa. He and his family made the decision to move to Aotearoa in order to fulfil Hajime’s dream of promoting Japanese traditional medicine overseas, as licensed Japanese practitioners of acupuncture were accepted here.

Hajime’s six-year-old daughter Hitomi and wife Nobuko came to Wellington, New Zealand in 2012 after the family visited the city the previous year. Hajime continued to lecture in Japan during this time while visiting his family several times a year. Nobuko enrolled in English language courses and Hitomi attended Crofton Downs Primary School, including the Japanese Supplementary School based at the campus. In 2014, Hajime was able to join his family while still lecturing in Japan once or twice a year and opened Kampo Health. Apart from seeing clients, Hajime likes to give tea ceremony courses in his clinic.

This photograph is part of a set of 24 photographs featuring twelve people who are either Japanese immigrants to New Zealand, their children, or descendants of Japanese New Zealanders. The images were carefully staged for an exhibition in 2016 which was, in turn, the outcome of a project sponsored by the Japan Society of Wellington and organized by Japan Society member Susan Zou and Noriko Murakami in 2016.

*Text based on interview summaries by Susan Zou and Noriko Murakami for the ‘Japanese Immigrants' experiences in New Zealand’ photographic exhibition, 2016.